Cookies, Candy, and Coke: Examining State Sugar-Sweetened-Beverage Tax Policy from a Multiple Streams Approach

The goal of this article is to shed some light on the conditions necessary for state legislatures to pass sugar-sweetened-beverage (SSB) tax legislation for state revenue purposes, using a modified version of Kingdon’s multiple streams framework. In turn, this study also tests the strength of the multiple streams model in explaining outcomes for public revenue bills. Using a comparative case study approach, this analysis examines the conditions surrounding SSB tax bills proposed in Colorado and Kansas in 2010, the last year a state SSB tax bill passed. Findings suggest that tax design, policy framing, and partisan politics are variables that influenced the outcomes of the Colorado and Kansas SSB bills. In addition, the modified multiple streams framework was valuable in identifying broader conditions significant to the outcome of revenue bills, such as the severity and magnitude of the budget gaps and packaging of revenue bills.